Commencement Season
2026-05-26
Omg y’all my kid graduates 8th grade today. Y I K E S.
I am not going to be cool about it. I’ve already accepted this. I’m def going to be the parent in the second row, mascara streaking down my Dawson-ugly-cry-face, taking like four hundred photos because I used to be a photographer and old habits don’t die they just get pointed at your children during milestone events and they hate it BUT I WON’T EVER STOP.
But typical graduation thoughts keep rattling around in my brain while I’m ironing clothes and charging batteries: specifically the word commencement.
We throw it around like it means “the end.” The ceremony. The cap and gown. The LAST DAY. But every single valedictorian speaker will remind you that commencement doesn’t mean ending. It comes from the Old French comencier. To begin. To start. (My kid coulda probably told you that, they just got B1 certified in French yay!)
Every graduation is just someone standing at a door they haven’t walked through yet.
My kid doesn’t fully get that yet and let’s be real like why would they? They’re 14. Thinking about summer and high school and whether their friends are going to be in the same classes and what clubs they will join. The bigness of it hasn’t landed. It will eventually. Probably at 2 AM some random Tuesday in October. That’s how these things work.
But I get it. Because even though I’m a full ass adult I’m standing at a few doors myself right now.
Rolling New Quests
So. While I’ve been running a whole gamified security awareness campaign at work (we’re about to wrap it up with a fun tabletop and I am LIVING for it), some other things have been happening too.
I’m over here quietly stacking XP. It’s wild the way levels always sneak up on you when you’re focused on the current quest.
I got accepted into the WiCyS AI Learning Series this summer. Women in CyberSecurity runs one of the most respected communities in this industry, and I’ve been going deep on AI and automation already. When you’re a one-person IT department, “learn to automate” isn’t a professional development goal. It’s survival. Getting into this program felt like the universe going “yeah, you’re heading the right way. Keep going.”
And THEN.
SANS Institute and Amazon Career Choice launched CyberLaunch, a mentorship initiative for people breaking into cybersecurity. The program runs from now until late November, and I’ll be working with mentees who are doing exactly what I did a couple of years ago: building a career in cyber from nothing, probably terrified, probably convinced they don’t belong yet.
Right after our first call I had to sit and process for a second: when did I become the person people come to for guidance? Like fr when did THAT happen?
Somewhere between the GIAC certs and the Security Guild and the conference talks and this website, I crossed a line I didn’t even see. I went from “person figuring it out” to “person other people trust to help THEM figure it out.”
That’s a level-up, like a real big one. And I almost missed it because I was too busy to notice? Damn.
Stacking the Deck
Here’s my summer: mentoring the first CyberLaunch cohort, learning alongside the WiCyS AI series, pushing the Security Guild toward its big finale and the public toolkit release, speaking at the SANS Security Awareness Summit in August about building security culture when you’re a team of one, writing, building, creating, probably starting three more things I haven’t thought of yet.
That’s a fuuuuuuull plate. That’s maybe too full of a plate. But I have never once in my life been great at doing only one thing at a time. (AuDHD brain says: why do one thing when you could do seven things simultaneously and then hyperfocus on an eighth thing nobody asked for?)
I’m not slowing down. I’m stacking, baby.
Every one of these is a beginning. A commencement. Another quest accepted, another skill tree unlocked, another door I’m walking through even when imposter syndrome is standing in the hallway à la Tim Robinson going “you sure about that?”
Yeah. I’m sure, Tim. I’m sure.
Two Commencements
So yeah my kid is starting high school. I’m starting a bunch of stuff and whatever the hell comes next after that. Two people in the same house, both in their sweet little commencement season, both a little nervous, both going anyway.
If you’re in your own commencement season right now…whether you’re graduating, pivoting, starting something new, or just finally admitting to yourself that you’ve outgrown where you are: go. Walk through the door, babes. You’re not going to feel ready. You might NEVER feel ready.
Go anyway.
Liz Gore is a Director of IT, SANS Cyber Academy graduate (GFACT, GSEC, GCIH), CyberLaunch mentor, SANS speaker, and the parent who will absolutely be sobbing at graduation today. Find her at lizgore.com or beginning things somewhere on the internet.